The decision to strip the Unionist Mayor of Derry of the trappings of office was unlawful, the High Court in Belfast has been told.
The submission was made yesterday by a lawyer for Mr Richard Dallas (27), who was relegated to Mayor in name only last July after he took part in a loyalist blockade of the city's Craigavon Bridge during the Drumcree crisis.
Mr Dallas, the youngest ever mayor of Northern Ireland's second city, applied for a judicial review of the decision by SDLP and Sinn Fein councillors to stop him representing the city at civic functions.
Arguing that the council had acted unlawfully, Mr Ronnie Weatherup QC, said the local government code of conduct did not give the council power to take the action it did.
The hearing was adjourned until today.